Merlin help her she was not waiting for him to show up.

She may have sat closer to the Restricted Section to get some uninterrupted library time, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Malfoy.

Liar

She had been coming here for two weeks now. Wanting to take another look at him, wanting to see if what she really saw was true. Then she would tell Harry.

The boys were at the Halloween feast as were many of the students and she had a gut feeling that would bring him here tonight, not like I care.

He had not been coming to classes, that much was she knew. Blaise Zabini had been covering for him in Potions, much to her irritation. If he was going to skive off classes he could at least explain himself. The only time she had seen him was in the great hall, she continued to find herself staring over Ginny's shoulder at the Slytherin. It was obvious something was wrong, the circles under his eyes had begun to lighten but that was because the rest of his skin had gone ghostly white. His hair was greasier than normal, she could always see Parkinson trying to push it around with no luck and while he had been slender throughout their schooling he was now approaching deathly thin and to see him wasting away in front of her made her heart hurt for him, merlin only knew why. However, if he came today it would be a coincidence of sorts because Hermione Granger did not sit in wait for a man to show up and talk to her. She was not Parkinson she would not beg for a word from him.

When she saw wisps of blonde hair above a bookshelf in front of her, she could feel the breath catch in her throat. Her heart picked up its pace in anticipation of seeing him come around the corner and into view. She watched as, instead of the Slytherin in her imagination, a third year Hufflepuff walked past not paying her any mind.

Get it together she thought closing her eyes and resting her head in her hands momentarily. She heard a ruffle of a cloak and quickly lifter her head and stared into clear grey eyes where the Hufflepuff had just been. Hesitation and mistrust on his face, her heart beat a little faster in her chest.

"What are you doing Granger" He said his eyes turning to slits as he looked her over.

"Studying"

"You have nothing out" he smirked as if he had caught her in a trap. She felt uneasy in her skin, a cat and mouse popped into her head momentarily and while she had been the one waiting she was no longer the cat.

"I just got here" she said reaching down and removing parchment and a quill from her bag and holding it up to show him before opening the book in front of her.

"What are you playing at?" He asked standing in front of her at the table. She felt small with him towering above her like this, she focused on the words in her book refusing to look up and meet his sunken eyes "I can see you Granger, you aren't invisible in the dining room, hell even Pansy has noticed and she's right dense sometimes. What are you trying to accomplish" he asked not taking his eyes off of her. The intensity that was in his eyes was something she had not seen this year, they were his normal piercing grey. She had not expected that, nor knew what she would do now that she had. What she did know was that right now he was playing a game, like he did when they were younger except there was more to it than that as if the thin line of control that he had been balancing on since she last spoke to him was about to snap and she was the only one in the way.

"Nothing" She replied feeling the blush begin to creep up at the prospect of him knowing she had been watching him.

"The Gryffindor Princess is never up to nothing. What are you trying to accomplish" He had smacked his hands down on the table in front of her menacingly causing her to jump.

"You won't like it" She said standing up to walk away, possessions be damned she would come back when he was gone. She made to round the table, to push past him but he would not let her leave, he just continued walking towards her. There was nothing she could do about it. He had efficiently backed her into a corner.

Step by step until her back hit the junction between two book shelves until she could feel his breath on her face, and she swore he could feel her heart beating out of her chest. She looked over his shoulder at her wand sitting on the table. How could you be so stupid.

"Try me." He said between his teeth his arms now on either side of her against the book shelf re taking her focus.

"You're hiding something. Suffering through something. Damnit Malfoy I don't know what I'm doing but I'm not watching this." She said returning his gaze, bringing strength back into her eyes. She could not let him win this.

"You want to be the hero of this story huh, the Mudblood that helped save me. I thought Potter was the one with the God complex" He said spitting next to her he pushed off the bookshelf and started pacing in the small space in front of her. "You have not a single clue what is even going on, yet you have to be so bloody good and well natured to try and help regardless. That's stupidity Granger I thought you were smarter than that." He said holding his head high and crossing his arms over his chest. This was it, this was her moment.

"Tell me what's going on then. We aren't friends and we never will be but damnit something is killing you. Even if I am as stupid as you say I am. Then what do you have to lose." She said throwing her hands out to her side. She needed him to break, lord only knows why but if she was going to stop anything from happening she needed him to break.

Don't lie to yourself.

She even cared about what was happening to him. There was just something about the way he had been wasting away so far, withdrawing from the world that had her scared. If Harry was right about him, then she needed to know what was happening to try and stop it. He took two steps to her and grabbed her face roughly with both of his hands making sure she was looking at him and that she could not look away. She tried to peal his hands off with her own, tried digging into his arm with her nails hard enough to leave small scratched behind but he wouldn't budge just continued to stare into her eyes with his piercing grey ones. Stone faced.

"I am a dead man walking Granger." He said letting go of her. She could physically see the snap in his eyes when the rage had taken over and with a growl he grabbed a chair to his right and threw it into one of the bookshelves before walking back the way he had come in. Her legs had given out on her and she silently slid to the ground to still her heart. A dead man walking he had meant it and she knew it, she had seen the same look mirrored on her friends face when he knew something could kill him. She knew this was different though, whatever Malfoy was doing he had no doubt in his mind that he was going to die. Even worse, she cared.